Handforth Parish Council
Discussion
In a former life as a local govt legal officer, I also spent 23 years as the part-time clerk to a parish council. My principal role included providing advice to parishes on standards and probity issues.
All I can say, is the electorate get the representation they deserve.
Many, maybe most, parish and town councillors (the first tier of local government) are co- opted into office due to lack of competing candidacy. It’s not unusual for vacancies caused by resignation or incapacity to be co-opted to without being advertised (which is unlawful), or to have insufficient candidates coming forward in response to advertisement to require a by-election; hence mates are cosied in.
The parish councillor role is unpaid, save perhaps for the chairperson who can be paid an allowance, and can be time-hungry and bring contention around your ears (ever seen the lobbying provoked by a major planning application, say?)
The whole tier is past its sell by date in my view and should be abolished. Modern communication channels mean there is no longer any utility in grass roots representatives garnering constituents’ views to funnel on; anyone with points to make can go direct to the actual decision maker easily enough.
PCs actually have few and arcane direct powers or responsibilities, unless allotments, closed churchyards, and parish clocks float your boat. They therefore normally operate to interfere in (sorry, influence) the decision making of other bodies who already have the means to consult directly with those affected by their administrations.
Spent 8 years working for one district council that comprised of 104 parishes with not a single town to its name. Interesting politics there!
All I can say, is the electorate get the representation they deserve.
Many, maybe most, parish and town councillors (the first tier of local government) are co- opted into office due to lack of competing candidacy. It’s not unusual for vacancies caused by resignation or incapacity to be co-opted to without being advertised (which is unlawful), or to have insufficient candidates coming forward in response to advertisement to require a by-election; hence mates are cosied in.
The parish councillor role is unpaid, save perhaps for the chairperson who can be paid an allowance, and can be time-hungry and bring contention around your ears (ever seen the lobbying provoked by a major planning application, say?)
The whole tier is past its sell by date in my view and should be abolished. Modern communication channels mean there is no longer any utility in grass roots representatives garnering constituents’ views to funnel on; anyone with points to make can go direct to the actual decision maker easily enough.
PCs actually have few and arcane direct powers or responsibilities, unless allotments, closed churchyards, and parish clocks float your boat. They therefore normally operate to interfere in (sorry, influence) the decision making of other bodies who already have the means to consult directly with those affected by their administrations.
Spent 8 years working for one district council that comprised of 104 parishes with not a single town to its name. Interesting politics there!
A sibling does these ZOOM meeting for a certain organisation. She tells me it's a miracle some of them can get the webcam pointed at their face. The things she's tells me are mental, the members are fairly conservative, old and fusty very un-PC types, some of the worst battle-axes you could meet. It's like the Parish council meetings in the Vicar of Dibly.
Pupp said:
In a former life as a local govt legal officer, I also spent 23 years as the part-time clerk to a parish council. My principal role included providing advice to parishes on standards and probity issues.
All I can say, is the electorate get the representation they deserve.
Many, maybe most, parish and town councillors (the first tier of local government) are co- opted into office due to lack of competing candidacy. It’s not unusual for vacancies caused by resignation or incapacity to be co-opted to without being advertised (which is unlawful), or to have insufficient candidates coming forward in response to advertisement to require a by-election; hence mates are cosied in.
The parish councillor role is unpaid, save perhaps for the chairperson who can be paid an allowance, and can be time-hungry and bring contention around your ears (ever seen the lobbying provoked by a major planning application, say?)
The whole tier is past its sell by date in my view and should be abolished. Modern communication channels mean there is no longer any utility in grass roots representatives garnering constituents’ views to funnel on; anyone with points to make can go direct to the actual decision maker easily enough.
PCs actually have few and arcane direct powers or responsibilities, unless allotments, closed churchyards, and parish clocks float your boat. They therefore normally operate to interfere in (sorry, influence) the decision making of other bodies who already have the means to consult directly with those affected by their administrations.
Spent 8 years working for one district council that comprised of 104 parishes with not a single town to its name. Interesting politics there!
The are not all like that. We live on a large new estate with a newly formed PC. Our PC chair is brilliant, and the council are really engaged with the residents committee, both of whom work a lot with the local community to use their influence to bring pressure to bare on the district council, the developers and land owners who owns large amounts of the parish (one commercial and several farmers, some of whom don’t like the fact that people are actually wanting to use footpaths and the like).All I can say, is the electorate get the representation they deserve.
Many, maybe most, parish and town councillors (the first tier of local government) are co- opted into office due to lack of competing candidacy. It’s not unusual for vacancies caused by resignation or incapacity to be co-opted to without being advertised (which is unlawful), or to have insufficient candidates coming forward in response to advertisement to require a by-election; hence mates are cosied in.
The parish councillor role is unpaid, save perhaps for the chairperson who can be paid an allowance, and can be time-hungry and bring contention around your ears (ever seen the lobbying provoked by a major planning application, say?)
The whole tier is past its sell by date in my view and should be abolished. Modern communication channels mean there is no longer any utility in grass roots representatives garnering constituents’ views to funnel on; anyone with points to make can go direct to the actual decision maker easily enough.
PCs actually have few and arcane direct powers or responsibilities, unless allotments, closed churchyards, and parish clocks float your boat. They therefore normally operate to interfere in (sorry, influence) the decision making of other bodies who already have the means to consult directly with those affected by their administrations.
Spent 8 years working for one district council that comprised of 104 parishes with not a single town to its name. Interesting politics there!
But I also recognise that the PC’s in the last two places we lived were useless and mostly filled with people who had nothing better to do and just wanted to be busy bodies.
This is quality.
"When do we plan to start?"
"f
k off"
Cllr Brewerton is a furious little man.
Jackie Weaver looks like she'd be fun after a couple of sherries.
(I've had the fortune to attend the odd PC meeting as a representative of a larger authority and it was exactly the same. Personal issues clouding everything, loads of pseudo-legalese and weight-throwing.)
"When do we plan to start?"
"f
k off" Cllr Brewerton is a furious little man.
Jackie Weaver looks like she'd be fun after a couple of sherries.
(I've had the fortune to attend the odd PC meeting as a representative of a larger authority and it was exactly the same. Personal issues clouding everything, loads of pseudo-legalese and weight-throwing.)
Pupp said:
In a former life as a local govt legal officer, I also spent 23 years as the part-time clerk to a parish council. My principal role included providing advice to parishes on standards and probity issues.
All I can say, is the electorate get the representation they deserve.
Many, maybe most, parish and town councillors (the first tier of local government) are co- opted into office due to lack of competing candidacy. It’s not unusual for vacancies caused by resignation or incapacity to be co-opted to without being advertised (which is unlawful), or to have insufficient candidates coming forward in response to advertisement to require a by-election; hence mates are cosied in.
The parish councillor role is unpaid, save perhaps for the chairperson who can be paid an allowance, and can be time-hungry and bring contention around your ears (ever seen the lobbying provoked by a major planning application, say?)
The whole tier is past its sell by date in my view and should be abolished. Modern communication channels mean there is no longer any utility in grass roots representatives garnering constituents’ views to funnel on; anyone with points to make can go direct to the actual decision maker easily enough.
PCs actually have few and arcane direct powers or responsibilities, unless allotments, closed churchyards, and parish clocks float your boat. They therefore normally operate to interfere in (sorry, influence) the decision making of other bodies who already have the means to consult directly with those affected by their administrations.
Spent 8 years working for one district council that comprised of 104 parishes with not a single town to its name. Interesting politics there!
My experience was the exact opposite. I was a parish councillor for a number of years, a role I undertook “to put something back” into my local community.All I can say, is the electorate get the representation they deserve.
Many, maybe most, parish and town councillors (the first tier of local government) are co- opted into office due to lack of competing candidacy. It’s not unusual for vacancies caused by resignation or incapacity to be co-opted to without being advertised (which is unlawful), or to have insufficient candidates coming forward in response to advertisement to require a by-election; hence mates are cosied in.
The parish councillor role is unpaid, save perhaps for the chairperson who can be paid an allowance, and can be time-hungry and bring contention around your ears (ever seen the lobbying provoked by a major planning application, say?)
The whole tier is past its sell by date in my view and should be abolished. Modern communication channels mean there is no longer any utility in grass roots representatives garnering constituents’ views to funnel on; anyone with points to make can go direct to the actual decision maker easily enough.
PCs actually have few and arcane direct powers or responsibilities, unless allotments, closed churchyards, and parish clocks float your boat. They therefore normally operate to interfere in (sorry, influence) the decision making of other bodies who already have the means to consult directly with those affected by their administrations.
Spent 8 years working for one district council that comprised of 104 parishes with not a single town to its name. Interesting politics there!
One of the aspects of the role was hugely disheartening and that was reviewing and commenting on countless “consultation” documents sent by the district council.
All of these documents took the same format:
30 pages of “guff”, incorrect facts and no consultation whatsoever in the remaining hundreds of pages. It was expected that the parish council would just rubber stamp the “consultation”. There was no consultation - it was a document written in reverse- conclusion determined and then council-speak guff to pad out the remainder.
When we took the authors to task over the documents we were either ignored or the consultation was withdrawn only to reappear in a slightly amended but still incorrect form many months and considerable cost later.
An example of the incompetence experienced : basing a planning change “consultation” on the incorrect guidelines as the district council had magically doubled the number of inhabitants in the village as this suited their purposes.
In another a pipeline was being planned and there was a consultation for the “access points” and “
works depots” with estimated traffic flow etc. We pointed out that the plans clearly indicated a number of the villages would face huge and avoidable construction traffic based on the traffic routes the council was proposing. Nothing was amended and we all suffered an avoidable nuisance for the period of construction.
I got bored dealing with the incompetents at the district council and resigned but am very grateful that others have stayed to do their bit. It is a thankless job but is still a valuable resource for villages that are forgotten about by the district councils.
Parish councillors come from a wide variety of backgrounds and my limited experience is that none of them undertake the work for an ego trip as they are usually successful outside the pc work.
I did find this zoom call hilarious however
Echoing pupp's comments though, the larger tier council meetings... whilst having some element of childishness at times... get business done a lot more effectively.
Also, parish councillors give up their free time to help their community. It would be a shame to lose that good will, though perhaps it could be re directed?
The ousted chair/clerk..I would assume he's the sort who would make a neighbour's life hell for leaving their bin out for too long, or cutting the hedge back too far/not far enough.
It's good to see the majority of the parish rejected him, though it might make the village pub arkward (if it ever opens again)
Also, parish councillors give up their free time to help their community. It would be a shame to lose that good will, though perhaps it could be re directed?
The ousted chair/clerk..I would assume he's the sort who would make a neighbour's life hell for leaving their bin out for too long, or cutting the hedge back too far/not far enough.
It's good to see the majority of the parish rejected him, though it might make the village pub arkward (if it ever opens again)
sutoka said:
A sibling does these ZOOM meeting for a certain organisation. She tells me it's a miracle some of them can get the webcam pointed at their face. The things she's tells me are mental, the members are fairly conservative, old and fusty very un-PC types, some of the worst battle-axes you could meet. It's like the Parish council meetings in the Vicar of Dibly.
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